Posts Tagged ‘Ashdod’

As Zaytouna and Amal, two boats with about 30 Gaza-bound passengers, mostly women, are getting closer to Israel’s shores, the IDF navy has been preparing to exercise the routine protocol in such cases, namely to board the boats and escort the passengers, politely but firmly, to the harbor city of Ashdod.

The website Women Boat to Gaza has been billing the endeavor as a “flotilla,” but the term commonly describes a fleet of ships or boats, so, in this case, the term “boats” is probably more accurate.

Ashdod has been serving as a destination for aid supplies for Gaza, for most of the decade since Hamas has taken over control of the Strip. Israeli officials go through the cargo, remove the contraband weapons and explosives that routinely arrive in those shipments, and clear the goods for trucking to Gaza, a few miles southward. Presumably, whatever goods the one or two boats manage to bring in will end up in Ashdod for inspection, followed by shipping to Gaza.

Israel’s Channel 2 News has reported that naval gunships have been waiting in Ashdod harbor for the signal to intercept the two boats. The same report suggested that the women onboard the boats are planning to exercise civil disobedience, which could get splashy.

The Zaytouna Captain is US Army retired Colonel Ann Wright, who served in the State Dept. diplomatic corps. She resigned from the US government in 2003, over her objection to the Bush Administration’s foreign policy. Since then she has been active in every single attempt to break through the blockade on Gaza.

It should be noted that the Turkish government, which ended up in a six-year tiff with Israel over the tragic end of the largest and most memorable 2010 Gaza flotilla, has expressed its anger at the mostly Turkish activists in that endeavor, for forcing it into this quagmire. Since Turkey has settled its dispute with Israel, Turkish goods destined for Gaza have been arriving in Ashdod regularly and then shipped to their intended recipients.

It should also be noted that the reason Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip is because the Hamas government has been declaring practically every day its intent to destroy Israel, and has been devoting most of its international aid money to military preparations to carry out this threat.

A group of Israeli high schoolers held a so-called “paint fight” inside an ancient archaeological site during passover break, vandalizing the stone walls of an early dark ages seaside fortress at the site of Ashdod-Yam on Tuesday.

“If these kids don’t come forward soon by their own volition to the Israel Antiquities Authority, we will bring in the police,” Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) Spokeswoman Yoli Shwartz told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) today.

Ashdod-Yam, which means “sea Ashdod,” is an archaeological site on the southern coast of Israel. Ashdod-Yam was a thriving port town from the Late Bronze Age to the Middle Ages and it now neighbors the modern city of Ashdod.

The high schoolers are from a local high school in Ashdod and they decided to use the Passover break to have a class paint fight. They ran around the site of Ashdod-Yam, spraying paint at each other and on the walls of the fortress. The teenagers even posted photos of their exploits and their vandalism all over social media later that day.

“The Municipality of Ashdod looks very gravely at this incident and we will deal with it with all the means at our disposal, including the issuing of fines to the people involved,” commented an official with the Ashdod Municipality.

“The municipal education supervisor and the school principal have already contacted the guilty parties and their parents and have made the gravity of their situation clear,” he added.

“They have 48 hours to come forward willingly to the IAA and we will instruct them on how to correctly undo the damage they caused,” IAA Chairman Israel Hason asserted. “If they do not take responsibility, we will have no choice but to press criminal charges and involve the police.”

According to Hason, vandalizing a archeological site is a serious criminal offense.

Hareidi-religious rioters in Ashdod blocked IDF military police late Monday night from arresting at least one man who did not show up at an induction center. Dozens of rioters overturned a police car and damaged several other police vehicles by throwing stones at them.

Police said in a statement, “A large number of Israel Police forces were deployed to the scene to extract the military policemen while dispersing the crowd. The police view this incident with the utmost severity and will use all the means at their disposal to locate those involved and bring them to justice.”

(JNi.media) A clash broke out Sunday night between ultra-Orthodox residents of Ashdod’s Third Quarter who were out to fulfill the custom of kapparot with chickens — and animal rights activists who tried to physically prevent them from carrying out the ritual, Haredim 10 reported.

The incident took place near the Belz Hasidic Institutions on Khativat Ha’Negev Street, when activists protested against the residents.

The activists turned over crates full of chickens, sprayed the birds with water, and even stole some of them.

As the struggle between the two parties ensued, police were called in and kept the activists out of the way.

An Eye Witnes told Haredim 10: “They broke into our territory and did here as they pleased. They stole chickens one by one into cars that were waiting on the street and just kept us physically from observing the custom of Kapparot. All this despite our explanations that the ritual is being done properly and there are no instances of cruelty to animals.”

A La’hish Region police spokesperson said: “A report was received at 5:30 PM at the 100 center (the local 911) of the Southern District Police, regarding a number of people who entered into the Belz Yeshiva on Khativat Ha’Negev Street in the city of Ashdod. Apparently they splashed water on chickens that were being offered for sale in the compound, which violated public order.

“Ashdod Police patrol cars arrived at the scene, and detained and removed some ten men and women (who are not residents of Ashdod) who were violating the public order. Apparently, the background to the event is the opposition of groups associated with animal rights to the practice of Kapparot.

“An inquiry by the officers at the scene indicated that there was no violence at all on the part of the demonstrators.

“At this point (Sunday night) police is on hand to maintain public order. The demonstrators have left and for the time being there is quiet in the yeshiva compound.”

Residents of southern Israel were wondering Tuesday night whether they would be sleeping in their beds or their bomb shelters again by morning. In Gaza, Hamas leaders were wondering the same thing.

A Grad Katyusha rocket attack was launched by Gaza terrorists Tuesday night on southern Israel. One rocket exploded in the community of Gan Yavne, near the port city of Ashdod. At least one teenage girl was taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon due to trauma from the attack.

Before midnight, Likud minister Miri Regev was already calling for a government response to the rocket fire aimed just a few hours earlier at civilians in the region. “It’s unfortunate that Hamas is trying to escalate the security situation in the south,” said Regev, a former IDF brigadier-general and spokesperson, currently serving as the government’s Minister of Culture and Sports.

The Hamas leadership began evacuating from their general security quarters after the attack. Gaza media outlets continued to broadcast the news that Hamas terrorist leaders are fleeing their headquarters, as they have in the past under such circumstances. The evacuation is expected to continue into the morning hours – or until all of the leadership is safely tucked away.

There was no immediately information about property damage resulting from the rocket fire. Five Code Red incoming rocket alert air raid sirens activated due to the launch — or launches — in communities that included Bnei Darom, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Lachish, in addition to Gan Yavne.

Things have been quiet for at least a month. Almost four weeks ago to the day, Gaza terrorists fired a Qassam rocket at the Gaza Belt city of Sderot. The rocket exploded on the outskirts of the city and did no damage but triggered air raid sirens in communities throughout the area and sent dozens of families scurrying for cover.

Tuesday’s attack was more serious, involving a more highly-powered rocket that went further north and was capable of far more damage. However, Israelis are for the most part well protected from such attacks due to frequent preparation drills by Home Front Command (two such drills are planned for the country in the coming days, as a matter of fact) and updated building codes that mandate built-in bomb shelters in each new housing unit.

Hamas has done nothing of the sort for its own people, however. As has been the standard in the past, there is nowhere for Gaza civilians to shelter or hide from any Israeli reprisal — in fact, the terrorist organization routinely urges civilians to stand on the roof of buildings in which rocket launchers are housed, and which are targeted for destruction by the Israeli Air Force.

The enclave’s Hamas terrorist rulers never built bomb shelters to protect their people from the reprisals they trigger after launching unprovoked attacks on southern Israeli civilians, assuming that gory photos of civilians deaths will evoke the endless sympathies of an international readership.